10 Ways ‘American Idol’ Changed the World

The Fox Network announced today that it will be pulling the plug on its longtime titan “American Idol” next year after its 15th and, now it appears, final season.

No show in recent years has had so great an impact on the culture as “American Idol.” It started as a little summer import from the UK, in a failed genre, starring a former pop star and an unknown record executive. It was so dismissed in its first season that not a single major American newspaper even bothered to review its premiere, which aired after a rerun of “That 70″s Show.”

In the end, no one liked it but the viewers, and “Idol” swept over the TV landscape like a tsunami, putting an entire fledging network on its feet, owning not one but two nights of primetime network airspace as the unchallenged king, scoring the most #1 seasons of any show in television history, topping the record set by “All in the Family.”

Idol”s day may have passed as it had to share the stage with a thousand imitators, but what a run it was. We”ll have a full year to say goodbye, but on this day so many could never imagine would come, let”s take a look at 10 ways this little singing contest changed the world.